Revising for A level chemistry

Original post by Isobeldace

Hi! I’m on the OCR exam board and am looking for new ways to revise for chemistry. For some reason I can’t get access to the past/practice papers online through the OCR site.
At the minute I’m revising with a class booklet and re-doing homework questions I get wrong (our homework’s are made of past questions mainly).
If anyone has any additional ways/ideas/tips please share. Thank you :smile:

Do you have access to the textbook? How I revise is I write out a section of the textbook in my own words then go to Physicsandmaths tutor, where I do the questions for the particular topic I just did.

Reply 2

OP

Original post by yankang.qi

Do you have access to the textbook? How I revise is I write out a section of the textbook in my own words then go to Physicsandmaths tutor, where I do the questions for the particular topic I just did.

I could probably buy one, which one do you use? Thank you :smile:

Reply 3

JamesAndrews1

10

100% you will need to use the specification. It specifies what you need to know and what you don't need to know. Learn all your definitions. Use thus technique I used, it was very effective. So revise a topic thoroughly. Perhaps create a sheet "blurt" all the info on that topic. Then after a few days go past get a pen and some paper and "blurt" out everything you remember. Then cross reference it with the specification and book/resources. Fix mistakes and focus on them and add what you forgot. This is a proven technique and if you do it this early you'll probably end up with an A*.

Reply 4

yankang.qi

Original post by Isobeldace

I could probably buy one, which one do you use? Thank you :smile:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Level-Chemistry-OCR-Student-Book/dp/0198351976/ref=asc_df_0198351976/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310873701019&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6074231062346699387&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9050359&hvtargid=pla-481046900357&psc=1&th=1&psc=1
This is the book I use, it's quite expensive. You should check your library for it first.
Also definitely look at the specification as well, but not just the specification as it doesn't go into a lot of detail with some things. Use it for definitions for sure.
When you do past paper questions, a very important point is to mark it and annotate it with the marking points you missed. This will help you learn the mark scheme (i.e. what keywords/phrases they are looking for) and is extremely useful.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 5

OP

Original post by JamesAndrews1

100% you will need to use the specification. It specifies what you need to know and what you don't need to know. Learn all your definitions. Use thus technique I used, it was very effective. So revise a topic thoroughly. Perhaps create a sheet "blurt" all the info on that topic. Then after a few days go past get a pen and some paper and "blurt" out everything you remember. Then cross reference it with the specification and book/resources. Fix mistakes and focus on them and add what you forgot. This is a proven technique and if you do it this early you'll probably end up with an A*.

Thank you! Yep I love this method ended using it for everything @ gcse

Reply 6

OP

Original post by yankang.qi

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Level-Chemistry-OCR-Student-Book/dp/0198351976/ref=asc_df_0198351976/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310873701019&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6074231062346699387&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9050359&hvtargid=pla-481046900357&psc=1&th=1&psc=1
This is the book I use, it's quite expensive. You should check your library for it first.
Also definitely look at the specification as well, but not just the specification as it doesn't go into a lot of detail with some things. Use it for definitions for sure.
When you do past paper questions, a very important point is to mark it and annotate it with the marking points you missed. This will help you learn the mark scheme (i.e. what keywords/phrases they are looking for) and is extremely useful.

Thank you so much for your help :smile:

Reply 7

yankang.qi

Original post by Isobeldace

Thank you so much for your help :smile:

No problem :smile:

I'm open to answering more questions if you have any :smile:

Reply 8

imtired.

3

Original post by Isobeldace

Hi! I’m on the OCR exam board and am looking for new ways to revise for chemistry. For some reason I can’t get access to the past/practice papers online through the OCR site.
At the minute I’m revising with a class booklet and re-doing homework questions I get wrong (our homework’s are made of past questions mainly).
If anyone has any additional ways/ideas/tips please share.

Hi,
To learn and understand concepts all I did was use flashcards
I used many resources (chemguide, chemrevise, youtube and my cgp textbook) to help me firstly understand what is going on and then what I would do is make questions from the resources on quizlet.
Then I would go through them on a regular basis (you could use a spreadsheet to keep track of your progress throughout the year)
Any past paper questions where you may have missed a marking point, it is very important to understand where you have gone wrong by using your flashcards or any other resource.
You could also put any questions you have done wrong onto a flashcard with the markscheme at the back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoUW5qjw9yI

If you have a look at this guys mega link in the description, he has flashcards specifically for ocr chemistry. It is basically the exact same thing that I do.

Reply 9

OP

Original post by imtired.

Hi,
To learn and understand concepts all I did was use flashcards
I used many resources (chemguide, chemrevise, youtube and my cgp textbook) to help me firstly understand what is going on and then what I would do is make questions from the resources on quizlet.
Then I would go through them on a regular basis (you could use a spreadsheet to keep track of your progress throughout the year)
Any past paper questions where you may have missed a marking point, it is very important to understand where you have gone wrong by using your flashcards or any other resource.
You could also put any questions you have done wrong onto a flashcard with the markscheme at the back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoUW5qjw9yI

If you have a look at this guys mega link in the description, he has flashcards specifically for ocr chemistry. It is basically the exact same thing that I do.

Thank you very much I’ll look at this link in my free period!

Reply 10

Adambrl

Original post by Isobeldace

Hi! I’m on the OCR exam board and am looking for new ways to revise for chemistry. For some reason I can’t get access to the past/practice papers online through the OCR site.
At the minute I’m revising with a class booklet and re-doing homework questions I get wrong (our homework’s are made of past questions mainly).
If anyone has any additional ways/ideas/tips please share. Thank you :smile:

If you struggle with calculations or would like to practice them some more with questions that get progressively harder, I cannot recommend enough A level chemistry Calculations by Jim Clark. I have attached a link below: Calculations in AS / A Level Chemistry

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0582411270/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_wXvWDb223P613

keep in mind that this has chemistry calculation problems across all specs so a few pages are irrelevant for your specific course...

good luck!

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 11

OP